


Interlude

by BecauseItIsTheLight



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: A hug and a therapist, And I STILL ended up writing about Anakin, I meant to talk about how Luke is like Padme, Obi-Wan Kenobi Needs a Hug, This fic is much shorter than I usually write, no beta reader we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 16:55:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29317467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BecauseItIsTheLight/pseuds/BecauseItIsTheLight
Summary: Aboard the Millenium Falcon, Obi-Wan reflects on his charge.
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Luke Skywalker
Comments: 3
Kudos: 12





	Interlude

_0 BBY  
_ _Hyperspace - en route to Alderaan_

The Millennium Falcon’s guest quarters was really just an extra large closet which Han Solo had managed to stuff two bunks into. There was barely enough space for one person, much less two. But while Obi-Wan Kenobi had had far better sleeping conditions, he had certainly also had worse. There was light, and a bunk with mattress and blanket, and a sink with a small mirror. It was enough.

Luke had not been as satisfied. Upon opening the door to the quarters, his eyebrows had shot practically to his hairline, his mouth set in a disgusted pout. “He can’t be serious.”

“I’m afraid so.” Obi-Wan had replied solemnly. “But it’s just one night. We’ll make do.”

Luke had grumbled to himself, but set about tossing his limited possessions up onto the top bunk. It was ridiculously cramped; Luke hardly had enough room to prop himself up on his elbows, much less sit up fully. What was more, it was set right under the cooling vent - Luke would likely get very cold by the night’s end. His suspicions on this front were confirmed as Luke immediately gave a shudder upon clambering up.

“Don’t you want the bottom one?” Obi-Wan found himself asking, “It would likely be more comfortable for you.”

“Oh!” Luke blinked in surprise, as if the notion of taking the more comfortable place for himself had never even crossed his mind. “No, that’s alright, Ben. You go ahead and take the bottom.”

“You’ll freeze under that vent.” Obi-Wan protested.

“Nah,” Luke drawled, “I’ll be just fine.” His eyes lit up with a gentle mirth, and the corner of his mouth twitched. “Besides, if this piece of junk Han calls a bunk collapses in the middle of the night, I don’t want to be the one squashed like a sand-flea.”

Obi-Wan’s heart squeezed in his chest as he remembered another blue-eyed Padawan who had always used humor to distract his Master from the fact that he was taking on the heavier burden.

_“No way I’m letting you carry the supply pack, Master. You’ll steal all the good stuff.”_

_“I’ll unload the ship, Master.” A bright smile against skin which had never lost its desert-seared tan. “Besides, one of us has to allow the Council the good pleasure of dressing us down, and I did it last time.”_

“If you insist.” he agreed softly, before placing his own bag with all its meager possessions on the bottom bunk.

Within moments of laying down, Luke was already mostly asleep, curled tight into a ball on the side of the bunk opposite the large vent. From where he was, Obi-Wan could see goose-flesh on the exposed skin of the boy’s forearm. Humming the softest note of pity, Obi-Wan sent a wave of warmth to the boy in the Force. He made sure it was too subtle for Luke to notice, but nevertheless nodded in satisfaction as he saw limbs slightly uncurl, and heard breath deepen in relief.

He pressed the button on the wall to turn off the overhead light before settling into the bottom bunk. Within minutes, he felt Luke’s signature in the Force dull as he slipped into a deep sleep. Obi-Wan was relieved. It had been 30 standard hours since the boy had discovered the wreck of bone and ash that was his old home, and Obi-Wan knew for a fact that his charge had not slept since. He was worried he had been a bit...cold with the boy. He saw now that he had been wild with fear, knowing that Vader’s minions had missed them on luck alone. What’s more, he remembered too well the wildness of Anakin’s grief, the way it had driven him so quickly to despair, and dreaded of seeing the same flush of hatred and rage in Luke’s eyes. So when the boy had wandered up to him, lost and heartbroken, he had behaved just one shade short of unfeeling.

_You are an old fool,_ _Obi-Wan Kenobi_ , he thought sourly to himself. _He is nothing like his father._

Well, this wasn’t altogether true. Even putting aside the boy’s looks, so much like Anakin’s, there were some brushes of his father’s personality in him. The same dry humor, the same candle temper - easy to light, easy to extinguish. But he lacked even the smallest portion of his father’s arrogance, and although his emotions were quick to hand, they never consumed him. In both his joys and his sorrows, Anakin had been wild. It was part of what had made him so charismatic - he felt everything so intensely, in a way that invited others to feel it too. His laughter had been infectious. His anger had been provocative, and escalated whatever conflict he found himself in. His sorrow could reach into your heart and break it beyond repair. Luke was far more subtle. Even earlier, just hours from seeing the horrible, mangled bones of the people who had raised him, he held his grief close to his chest. Anakin had been intelligent - extremely so - but there was a contemplative nature to his son that Obi-Wan couldn’t remember his former Padawan possessing a day in his life. A gentleness to his bearing which was almost regal. Which was only right, he supposed.

He kept forgetting that Luke was just as much Padme’s as Anakin’s.

On the edges of sleep himself, Obi-Wan idly wondered what Luke’s midi-chlorian count was. There was really no way to predict - Force sensitivity and the strength of that sensitivity was in some ways genetic, but also completely spontaneous. It could be existent in entire races for generations, or appear randomly after centuries of Null-only bloodlines. The Force had a mind of its own, and chose whom it willed. Obi-Wan had long stopped trying to predict who it would favor.

A soft but fervent noise shook him into alertness. He became entirely still, immediately expanding his senses out as far as they could go in the Force. He felt Luke, deeply asleep. Han and the Wookie Chewbacca were in the main common area, playing a game of cards. There was nothing else, except a few ship rats and the strange crackling in his senses which always came from traveling in hyperspace.

The noise came again, and Obi-Wan’s confusion was replaced by understanding and then chagrin. He relaxed, shaking his head at his own skittish response.

The boy was snoring.

It was gentle, and accompanied by a stuffy whistle on every exhale. Almost 20 years of isolation had robbed Obi-Wan of the familiarity of community life. It had been decades since he hadn't slept alone, with only the pounding silence of the desert night for company.

The soft, high whistle echoed again, and he was suddenly slammed with memories of another Padawan, another desert-bred boy who snored when he slept. Anakin had always insisted to the contrary, but Obi-Wan had spent more than ten years being lulled to sleep by the hushed whistle of his Padawan’s dreams. At one time, it had been a noise he could have picked out from among a cacophony of sound.

He closed his eyes and allowed himself a full minute of luxurious, icy grief.

And then he stilled himself, quieting his breath as much as possible, to enjoy the precious sound until he himself slipped out of awareness, and into sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> There it is! My first fic posted on this site. I have several more in progress, all of them significantly longer than this. Really, this was just a passing idea I wanted to put into words. 
> 
> Expect much more from me on the community life of the Jedi. I allude to it very briefly here, but it's something that I'm fascinated by, especially as a Catholic whose religion has 1001 things to say about the importance of community and communal life within religious structures, which the Jedi of course are (although their basic spirituality does seem to tend to be more Eastern!) 
> 
> Thanks for reading! Remember to tell me what you think.


End file.
